One of the most recent accessories for personal computers is the hand-held image scanner. Typically, the scanner is able to be coupled to a personal computer through an associated circuit board and software made compatible with the personal computer. After such coupling, the scanner enables the user to transfer desired information (e.g., text, photograph or other image, etc.) from a flat surface such as a sheet of paper (magazine, newspaper, etc.) through a window of the scanner to the terminal screen of the computer. This is accomplished by the user scanning, or technically speaking optically viewing, the sheet of information with the window of the hand-held image scanner, and the scanner hardware and software digitizing the information scanned and collected through the window. From the digitized information, the computer displays an image of the scanned information on the display terminal.
Generally, "scanning" is performed in a columnar fashion, that is from the top edge of the sheet down to the bottom edge along one longitudinal axis and repeated along parallel longitudinal axes, until all the desired information has been scanned through the window of the scanner. However, it is common for a user during scanning to unintentionally tilt the scanner so that one side of the scanner window reaches a line of information before the other side. Or the user tries to compensate for such tilting by repeatedly and alternately tilting the scanner from one side to the other side. This results in a wobbling motion during scanning. Such wobbling and, in fact, the slightest wobbling of the scanner during scanning generates noise and an inaccurate, if not unrecognizable, screen image of the desired scanned information.
Because a user's hand is usually not naturally steady enough to prevent such unwanted adverse movement during scanning, the difficulty in correctly operating the scanner is a major disadvantage. Although the scanner may have user adjustments for resolution (e.g., 100-400 dpi), gray scale and subject type (text versus graphics), these merely tailor scanning to the subject being scanned. Also an audio feature (a beep) sounds when the user is scanning at a rate above which the scanner is operable according to the resolution setting. None of these features, however, steady the hand of the user during scanning to prevent unwanted transverse movement.
Accordingly, means to aid the operation of such hand-held image scanners are needed.